


Punishments End

by Anne



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21835939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anne/pseuds/Anne
Summary: My yuletide story
Relationships: Harvey Kinkle & Sabrina Spellman, Nicholas Scratch/Sabrina Spellman
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Punishments End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aaronlisa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/gifts).



It would be some time before she'd manage to find her way back to Hell, to find her was back to Nick with Harvey by her side. Time before she'd be able to return him to life, to health, to a body without the scourge and spirit of her father trapped within his flesh and mind. 

She wondered, sometimes, if it was punishment. If it was life or some other sort of thing trying to punish her for keeping secrets, for keeping things to and for herself without thought for others. Or for doing things for others without considering what they actually wanted versus what she'd decided that they must need. 

Maybe it was crazy, but she honestly didn't think so. After all, she'd seen a lot of things in just the past few years and this wouldn't exactly be that big of a shock would it? No, not really. So no matter how much Harvey tried to convince her that she was wrong about this, she didn't think that she was. 

And honestly, she wasn't sure that he thought so either. After all, he'd seen quite a bit as well hadn't he? So no. She didn't believe she wasn't being punished, that they weren't. But eventually, punishments end. And she'd have Nick back. They'd have him back. 

\---

He didn't believe that she was being punished, not as she did. A few months ago, before Theo had shaken sense back into him, he might have thought as much. It kills him a little inside to know that that's a possibility or even a probability. But now? Now, not so much. But Harvey knows that Sabrina thinks this, that she may even think that she deserves to be punished for everything that's happened. 

After all, how much of this is her fault? Certainly at least some of it. Could she have avoided signing the book? Possibly. Maybe. Probably. Harvey sometimes thought so. She certainly could have opened up much earlier to them, she could have explained everything or asked for help sooner. 

Would they have believed her? Would they have helped? Without everything that they'd gone through over the past year and some change, well...he'd like to think that they would have but honestly he's not so sure. 

Theo would have. Theo absolutely would have. But the rest of them? 

No, he's not so sure at all. 

But in the end, they did. In the end. And they'll keep helping. For Sabrina, for their friends, for their families. Even for Nick. *Even* for Nick. Until they've fixed it, until everything's back...well, not the way it was of course. That wasn't good, as much as it felt like it was at the time. A time filled with lies, untruths, misdirections and deception. 

They'll help, and maybe things will be better, in the long run. In the future. Maybe everything will be okay, or at least some semblence of better. Maybe. It certainly can't be worse. 

God, he hopes it can't be worse. 

\---

Nick doesn't think this is a punishment for Sabrina. He doesn't think it's a punishment at all. Honestly, he doesn't really think much at all. He dreams, of better times of better lives. Of glossier, shinier versions of the life that he's lived. Everyone in a high school, sometimes. Sabrina with longer hair and tests she has to go through to become a better witch. Happier versions of everyone around them. 

Sometimes he dreams of worse things. Nightmares and dreamscapes of creatures and demons. Goblins that try to drag him into the deep and the dark, to shove more unholy things into his soul, to keep him full of things that would destroy the world if they got free. A human Pandora's Box, if you will. 

Or a world in the past or in the future, different roles and different lives. Dreams upon dreams upon dreams and never the same thing twice. He doesn't really know this is happening to him, he doesn't lament it, he doesn't fight it. He doesn't worry or cry or scream, he doesn't lash out in hatred of anyone for what he's done for the love of them. Of their friends. Of their former loves. He doesn't claw at the king in his head. 

He sleeps. He dreams. Rests, watched over by the Queen of the Damned and the Witches. Is there peace in it? Maybe. There's certainly no pain, no real and physical pain. Does he wish that he could relay this to Sabrina, to Harvey, to everyone beyond this realm that could possibly care?

Well...no, not really. He can't, he won't, he doesn't even know it's happening. 

\---

It's punishment, she thinks. 

She knows. 

She knows it is. 

It's not punishment, he says. 

He knows. 

He knows it's not. 

A boy dreams, and he doesn't think about it at all. How could he?

The dreamer dreams, and perhaps he dreams of a girl who blames herself, a boy who doesn't. Maybe he loves him both, and maybe he doesn't. Maybe he wishes he were awake, and maybe he doesn't. Maybe a queen watches over him, and maybe she doesn't. Maybe a demon walks through his ehad, and maybe he doesn't. 

Maybe dreamers wake up, and maybe they don't. 

Maybe they can't, and maybe they can't. 

Maybe boys go to college, and maybe they don't. 

Maybe they marry, maybe they don't. 

Maybe the blind can see, and maybe they can't.

Maybe friends grow back together, and maybe they don't.

Maybe a girl goes to hell to rescue her lover, and maybe she doesn't. 

Maybe a king rises up, and maybe he doesn't.

Maybe powers are bound, and maybe they aren't.

Maybe a cousin walks the earth, maybe he doesn't.

Maybe punishments end, and maybe they don't. Maybe people fall in love, and maybe they don't. Maybe new children are born, and maybe they aren't. Maybe girls forget about the boys they lost, and maybe they don't. 

Maybe punishments end. Maybe punishments end. Maybe punishments end. Maybe punishments end. Maybe punishments end. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe....  
Punishments. 

End.


End file.
